Semi-arid rangelands show much spatial heterogeneity, with some parts producing more and better quality food for herbivores. The concepts of ‘Key Resource’ and ‘Key Resource Area’ have been developed to describe a resource that ‘provides good-quality forage’ and that ‘reduces (inter-)annual variation in forage supply’. Illius and O’Connor (1999) formalised these concepts, arguing that in key re...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of forage level and oil supplement on selected strains of rumen bacteria believed to be involved in biohydrogenation (BH). A continuous culture system consisting of four fermenters was used in a 4×4 Latin square design with a factorial arrangement of treatments, with four 10 d consecutive periods. Treatment diets were: i) high forage diet ...

This experiment evaluated weight gain responses to supplemental Zn by cows and calves grazing forage containing less than 20 ppm Zn. One hundred cow-calf pairs in each of 2 years and 120 paird in a third year were pastured together over a 63- to 77-day preliminary period during which cows were exposed to bulls. Each experimental period began in mid-June after bulls were removed and continued fo...

An Excel (v 7.0) spreadsheet was created to simplify balancing winter diets (energy and protein), estimating feed needs and evaluating the impact of winter feeding programs on annual cow cost and calf break-even price by using inputs readily found on the farm (e.g., forage test results, accounting and production records). The spreadsheet operates on the substitution method and requires the foll...

Ten Holstein steers (141 kg) were used in two 5 X 5 Latin-square experiments conducted simultaneously to determine the effects of offering different levels and types of feeds with endo: phyte-infected rescue given ad libitum. In Exp. 1, steers wer e given ad libitum access to infected fescue hay in the afternoon; in the morning fescue was given ad lihitum (basal) or bermudagrass or clover hays ...

A meta-analysis was performed to determine the influence of cereal grain type and corn grain harvesting and processing methods, dietary starch, rumen-digestible starch, and forage NDF concentrations on intake, digestion, and lactation performance by dairy cows using a data set comprising 414 treatment means from 102 peer-reviewed journal reports from 2000 to 2011. Categories for corn processing...